D-Day, June 6 1944 (June)

The invasion of France on June 6 1944 was the most significant step to liberate Europe following the invasion and occupation by Nazi Germany in 1939. Following over a year of planning and build up, the largest sea based invasion force of WW2 was launched from harbours all along the south coast of Britain to attack the Normandy beaches of northern France.

Allied Forces:

United Kingdom
United States
Canada
France & French resistance
Australia
Czechoslovakia
Polish government-in-exile Poland
Netherlands
Norway
New Zealand
Greece
South Africa
Southern Rhodesia

Strength

156,000 soldiers
195,700 naval personnel
(Germany 50,350+)

Casualties and losses

• 10,000+ casualties
• 4,414 confirmed dead
• (Germans: 4,000–9,000 killed, wounded, missing, or captured)

The following Battle of Normandy,

• 73,000 Allied forces were killed and
• 153,000 wounded.
• the battle — and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities — killed around 20,000 French civilians.

Taking a wider view, during the Battle of Normandy

• over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing.

This figure includes around 210,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 killed amongst the ground forces and a further 16,000 deaths amongst the Allied air forces. German losses of around 200,000 were killed or wounded

French civilian casualties are even more difficult to measure accurately. Most civilian casualties resulted from Allied bombing, especially in and around Caen. It is believed that between 15,000 and 20,000 French civilians were killed during the Normandy Campaign, although many more fled their homes to escape the main combat area

Operation Overlord